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Would a rose be a sweet if named anything else? Shakespeare pondered. Would ghost tours be as scary without without a name like Haunted Hills preceding tours? It’s a gift from our area that is well documented in Gippsland’s history, that gave us the Haunted Hills. Whether it’s coal or something paranormal, spiritual or otherwise, its definitely stocked with stories.

Today in our busy, noisy world, thousands of people fly by the Haunted Hills, never hearing the disconcerting sound nor the unnerving sight of “ghosts of dead gums”. That is unless you drove through the Latrobe Valley after the 2014 bush fires that started in Herne’s Oak (the home of the Haunted Hills). The Princes Hwy was an eerie sight with burnt bark on trees that in the middle of summer had no leaves, it changed the landscape. Reviving fears of the day that flames threatened Morwell and then went into the Morwell Open Cut. It was a ghastly reminder of natures power and propensity for destruction, some of the trees today aren’t recovered fully.

Even though the Haunted Hills were renamed in 1939, Gippslanders never let go of the legend of the Haunted Hills, the name has been preserved for over 150 years. The first account I can find is an article from the Gippsland Times that recounted a Journey from Melbourne to Sale referred was in 1872, that they “rounded the haunted hill”.

These days the haunted hills are a different place to the thickly wooded hills covered in native hops. 1931 is the first recounting of the legend of the Haunted Hills. The legend that had run rife, as drovers taking cattle through to Melbourne had a predictable place they’d experience trouble on their route – the western slope of the Haunted Hills. The cattle would walk up the Eastern slope with no concerns, however, at the precipice of the Haunted Hills, the cattle would become agitated, stampeding off, many a cow was lost at this point in the journey to Melbourne.

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The experiences of people who do take time to wander or as they’re driving by with eyes wide open, they hear phantom brumby’s galloping, some people have seen a man standing by the side of the road, an eerie noise through the trees, the groaning noise under the ground and in places find their mobile reception is non-existent.

The sounds are dismissed as the coal, however, coal seams travel all the way through Gippsland – in all terrains. I’d love to speak to a geologist about the make up of the Haunted Hills. (The picture I’ve found isn’t very scientific, however it’s a start).